October 30, 2009

Must-read posts for sentencing fans at The Volokh Conspiracy and other blogosphere goodies

The Volokh Conspiracy is on my list of daily blog-reads, in part because the folks there cover a lot of cutting edge criminal and political issues that go beyond my core sentencing focus. But today the Conspirators have these two must-read new posts for sentencing fans:

Comments

The reason for the existence of a Sentencing Guideline Commission is to increase incapacitation, and to balance the pro-criminal bias of the criminal lover lawyers on the bench, in the defense bar, and even in the prosecution bar. These owe their jobs to the criminal, and not to the victims who pay their salaries via taxes.

So, the writing of guidelines should reflect the views of crime victims as a balance to the crybaby, criminal lover judges' whining.

Crime victims should not be allowed to testify outside of the trial, as Cassell is proposing. If allowed to, they will soon get a right to counsel, which is the real intent of Cassell, rent seeking, and lawyer jobs. Ex parte testimony is unlawful, and is not subject to cross examination. It is also quite trivial. "I was very upset after the defendant beat me with a lead pipe." We knew that without the ex parte testimony.

The lawyer is so tricky. He is now riding a good movement to help victims more, but is looking out only for himself.

Speaking of tricky, Kleinman brings up well established technical aspects of punishment, the sole tool of the law. All lawyers and judges should be taught these. For example, the certainty of punishment deters better than the severity of punishment. Very important concept to reduce crime.

But that is just the Trojan Horse. It opens the gate for gigantic growth of government programs. And Kleinman is just another left wing rent seeking lawyer.

Nowhere is there a mention, even to rebut it, of 123D. That would be the single most popular remedy among the real public, but not among the academic and pro-criminal biased lawyer freaks here. Kleinman just has typical contempt for the regular public's best and most effective remedy. The deceased have a very low recidivism rate.